


opposites attract | jemily

by emilysredtanktop



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: College AU, F/F, Fluff, Football Player Derek Morgan, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, emily is super gay, hockey player aaron hotchner, jj is super gay for emily, penelope is the bestest best friend, rossi is their professor, star soccer player jj
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29349717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilysredtanktop/pseuds/emilysredtanktop
Summary: criminal minds au: collegejennifer jareau was your classic straight-a student. she had a full scholarship thanks to her soccer career, she focused on her grades and studying, and tried to show up to as few parties as possible. emily prentiss on the other hand, was the complete opposite. all of her actions tended to be made in spite of her mother. her "perfect ambassador mother" as she liked to refer to her. she didn't bother with studying, somehow managed to maintain her grades, and made an appearance at almost any party. but one night when jj's roommate drags her to a party with emily and her friends... well, let's just say opposites attract, right?
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss
Kudos: 26





	1. chapter 1.

**Author's Note:**

> this is another one of my fanfics that i'm transferring from wattpad! it's a jemily college au and i'm actually really excited to write this one. that being said, my main focus is my other fanfic so updates on this one are going to be sporadic://. anyways i only have two chapters of this written right now buuuut i do still plan on updating it.

jennifer jareau, or jj (as she liked to be referred to), woke with a groan and a ray of sun in her line of sight due to the cracked blinds coming from the window. she reached across her bedside table to quickly quiet the alarm that had been blaring for at least a minute and a half. she heard her roommate grunt from the other side of the room, then watched her start to shift and slowly open her eyes.

"jennifer jareau i swear to god if i look over and that clock doesn't have a time that starts with at least a seven i will kill you right here with my bare hands." 

"sorry pen.. i had it set for my morning run i didn't mean to wake you."

penelope garcia was a bubbly colorful girl. she was very friendly, wasn't afraid to jump into public scenes and talk to new people. everyone seemed to know her in one way or another. quite frankly, she was quite hard to forget. her and jj had met a few years prior at their high school. penelope moved into her small town in sophomore year, being the new kid was never easy, and jj knew that, so she was more than happy to show the girl around. the friendship never quite escalated seeing as the two weren't particularly close until senior year. they had seemed to rekindle their friendship and were thrilled when they found out the other had chosen the same college to attend. even more thrilled when they got the news that they would be sharing a dorm. 

over the summer jj and penelope had hung out a lot more than usual. even though their bond had become stronger over their last year of high school, they figured they should get to know each other a bit more before living in a room together for an entire year. by the end of the summer the two were almost... inseparable? it was crazy to see how a relationship that had gone from a quick 'hey' in the hallway, accompanied by a smile, to the pair telling each other everything going on in their lives, no matter what time of the day or night. jj and penelope were best friends, no doubt about it.

"well... since your up, wanna come on my run with me?" jj asked with a toothy grin. 

penelope sat up in bed and stared at the blonde for a minute before the two both burst into laughter. 

"funny girl... running, at 6:30 in the morning? no thank you, never ever."

"suit yourself. i'll be back by 8 and then we can head out by 9 for class if that's okay with you."

"yeah, yeah, fine whatever. now let me go back to sleeeep." penelope groaned, dragging out the last letter of the word. 

━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━

emily prentiss woke with a pounding headache. not a great way to start off her first day of college. she had heard about a party the night before the semester started and she figured she would go. she had already moved into her dorm weeks prior, trying to escape her mother as fast as she could, so she had been to a multitude of parties, but she never woke up like this 

she wasn't thrilled to be there, she assumed no one was, but especially for her. her mother had set her up at this school knowing that she would be able to make good grades, and still manage to find some good parties on campus, plus she would have a dorm to herself. as much as elizabeth prentiss, a u.s. ambassador, despised her daughters decisions, she knew she would never hear the end of it if emily were cooped up in some prissy academy. after all, emily was 18 now, she didn't have to be there if she didn't want to. that was the one problem about college, it looked just as well for her mother as it did for her.

emily didn't necessarily care about her grades. that being said, she did want to get somewhere in life. her goal was to be an fbi agent, or something of the sort. emily knew that in order to reach her goal she should probably start focusing more on the actual studying aspect of school, but she was the type of person to not study, then ace the exam the next day. so she did her schoolwork, ran with whatever grades she got, and moved on with her life. 

not even ten minutes later emily heard a pounding on her front door, she knew exactly who it was. 

"derek, you know the door is always open! quit adding to my headache!" emily shouted, her voice echoing through the dorm. 

the doorknob turned, then clicked, and in walked two boys. one, the derek that emily had just referred to. derek morgan. here on a football scholarship. going in as quarter back after the star qb on the team left last year as a senior. although she hadn't seen him play, she assumed he must have been good, the coach hand picked him. 

"morning em- woah, what the hell happened in here?" derek asked, stunned by the mess someone had created the night prior. emily walked out into the living area of her dorm, rubbing her head. she made me way to the cabinet, downed two advil, then turned back to derek.

"yeah um... not actually sure what happened last night. i don't even remember getting myself home..."

"well lucky for you i drove you home last night, but when i left it didn't look like this." 

the trio stood in the living area looking around, emily had yet to acknowledge the other tall boy standing next to derek.

"whatever, i'm sure i'll remember even- shit!" emily yelled as she spun around. "sorry, didn't realize hotch was here. next time you bring someone in with you derek just give me a heads up. cause when i walk out of my bedroom half naked and someone is standing next to you and its not hotch, i'm gonna beat your ass."

"yeah okay, whatever you say princess."

emily rolled her eyes and walked back into her bedroom to start getting dressed for the day. she had met derek a couple weeks ago when she moved into her dorm, his was right next door. although they didn't know that until about three weeks ago when derek saw emily coming home from the party they had just met at. she had bet some kid he couldn't shotgun a can faster than him, long story short, the kid lost the bet. derek seemed so fascinated by emily, he didn't really know why either. 

he initiated the friendship by flirting, to which she had turned him down. she told him she wasn't attracted to him, then said "as a matter of fact i'm not attracted to anyone here tonight." she motioned in front of herself and he looked to see the party filled with nothing but frat guys. then it hit him what she really meant. from then on they had been close. emily had always had a hard time making friends after moving around with her mother so much, so she wasn't sure why it took her less than 5 minutes to find a friend in hot-shot football player, derek morgan. 

the boy that derek had walked in with was aaron hotchner, he was on the hockey team. pretty well known around campus, also known for his on-again, off-again relationship with haley brooks. emily had heard a multitude of rumors, one including that haley cheated on him, but she knew it wasn't her business to get involved in. aaron was a sophmore, as was haley, so emily wasn't exactly sure how derek knew him, but she didn't care enough to ask. 

emily got out of the shower and got dressed. she walked out into the living area of her dorm and found derek and hotch watching netflix on her laptop. she had completely sobered up at this point and was taking in her apartment, it was completely trashed. what the hell had happened last night?

she let the boys continue watching whatever they were watching, and started picking stuff up off the floor until she heard derek turn around.

"hey em, there's a party in like two weeks for after the football teams first game. win or lose, you in?"

emily thought about it for a second. who was she kidding, of course she was gonna go.

"yeah, i'm in."

"cool. and hey, maybe we can find you a chick while we're there." derek added with a wink. 

"just cause i told you i'm gay doesn't mean you have to set me up with every woman on the planet, thanks though derek."

"that's not gonna stop me from looking." 

"i know it's not, nosey." emily said, throwing a towel from the counter at dereks head. derek found the closest object to him, which happened to be an empty waterbottle, and threw it right back at emily. after about five minutes derek and emily were still throwing whatever they could find across the dorm at each other. emily threw a soda can and hit the back of hotch's head, causing him to rub it and continue watching netflix. they both stopped and stared at him.

"oh c'mon hotch, quit being such a hardass" derek said, nudging hotch on the shoulder. 

"this is why i don't hang out with freshmen." hotch replied. 

"oh please, you love us. it's the first day of the semester, if you wanted to be with anyone else you would be." emily added, both boys shooting their heads in her direction. 

"it's the first day of the semester..." hotch and derek said in unison. 

emily looked up at the clock and it read 9:04 am. she threw her hair up into a messy bun in the middle of the kitchen due to it still being semi-wet, ran into her bedroom, grabbed her backpack and threw in the textbooks she needed and a few notebooks. she had her first class with derek at 9:30, and hotch had a class at the same time in the building next to theirs. when she ran out derek was making his way out the door with hotch holding the door open for her. he was holding the coffee she makes every morning. 

"see, you love me." emily said with a smirk. hotch just shook his head and locked the door behind her. 

━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━

jj walked back into her dorm around 8:15. she took off her tank top and threw it into the laundry basket next to her bed leaving her in a sports bra, letting the cold air of her dorm hitting her toned stomach. she walked over to penelope's bed and slightly shook her.

"hey, pen, it's 8:20 get up."

"five more minutes." penelope groaned, throwing her tie-dye comforter over her head. 

"i gave you two hours from the last time we woke up, time to get up now."

"yeah well i didn't ask to be woken up two hours ago, but thanks for that." penelope slowly sat up in bed and looked around the room, her eyes settling on jj, then on jj's abs, then back on jj's eyes. she arched her eyebrow a bit. "well look at you, hot stuff." 

"are you going to do that every single time i come back from a run looking like this."

"i plan on it." penelope said, matter-of-factly. jj rolled her eyes and made her way to the bathroom to start the shower. she walked back into her room to grab an outfit for the day. seeing as it was september, it was still relatively warm, but got colder as the day went on. jj opted for a magenta floral skirt with a white turtleneck. 

when she got out of the shower she walked into her living area to find penelope in a bright pink sweater and patterned leggings, with her hair up in space buns. she was standing at the kitchen counter making two iced coffees. 

"i really hope one of those is for me, i don't want to be responsible for cutting you off on our first day of college." jj said with a laugh, walking over to penelope.

"haven't i already told you it doesn't count if you brew it at home?" penelope asked. jj paused and stared at the very colorful girl for a moment before she spoke again. "i'm totally kidding, well, about the coffee part, this one is yours." 

jj accepted the coffee with a quick 'thank you' and walked over to her backpack and started putting all her things inside. she looked up at the clock and saw that it was 8:45. penelope had read her mind and was already standing at the door.

"ready to go?"

"ready as i'll ever be." jj replied, and they made their way down the stairs and onto campus.

━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━

jj and penelope walked into their lecture hall at around 9:15. the class started at 9:30 so they sat down in one of the middle rows of the classroom and pulled out their stuff and made small talk until their professor walked in. he had all his things laid out on his desk, just waiting for the clock to hit 9:30 so he could begin. at 9:29 two students came barreling through the doors of the lecture hall and quickly slipped into the first seats they could find in the back of the classroom.

"the first day and we're already trying to be late to class, i see?" the professor asked, pulling jj out of her thoughts.

"sorry professor." the two muttered, not making eye contact with a soul in the room.

"technically nothing to be sorry about... yet. you weren't late, just don't make as much of a distraction next time you decide to run to class in the morning."

emily and derek nodded their heads, still not looking up at the professor. 

"well, now that our star students are here, we can start i presume. my name is david rossi and i'm going to be your criminology professor for this semester..."


	2. chapter 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> penelope is sneaky and also a match maker. jj just doesn't know--or believe--it yet.

two weeks has passed since the first day of school and nothing major had changed. emily was still friends with derek, although she had gotten closer to hotch and was pleasantly surprised to learn that he wasn't always a hardass. jj and penelope had settled into college well. they had made friends with a boy, also in their criminology class, spencer reid. the boy was younger, a lot younger. he seemed nervous, jittery almost to be in a public setting, so they offered for him to sit with them and had ultimately grown pretty close over the past couple weeks.

penelope had also befriended derek, jj had not. penelope was outgoing, everyone who met her, or even saw her and her outfits, could tell that. derek and penelope crossed paths one morning walking into their criminology class. they had talked a multitude of times, and a very tight friendship quickly blossomed. the friendship confused most... the flirty jokes, quite inappropriate nicknames, and taunting behavior made it seem like the two were dating. emily had picked up on the relationship fairly quickly. she found it, to be completely honest, hilarious. how jj had not yet met the two was beyond her, although she knew she wasn't one for mingling with a crowd.

the party that derek had mentioned was still on, and the first football game was tonight. derek had been practicing, relentlessly. emily could see the toll it was taking on him, and was worried, especially seeing as they weren't even a month into school. as much as she wanted to say something she chose to avoid it, at least until after this game, she was hoping it was just nerves. that being said, if it continued she was adamant she was going to say something.

━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━

jj was sitting on her bed getting ready for the game when penelope burst through the door. jj was already reluctant to going to this game in the first place, and somehow penelope had managed to convince spencer to go with them. of course it was all to support derek, but she also wanted to try to get her friends actually out in the world.

"hey! are you excited for tonight?" penelope shouted from the kitchen. jj walked out to meet her.

"far from it, thanks for asking." jj replied sarcastically.

"oh come on, it's gonna be fun! i promise."

"mhm, i'm sure it is."

"good lord jayje, you could at least pretend to be excited."

"and why is that?"

"so that it would make my next question a lot easier to ask..." penelope says, giving jj a guily look. jj rolled her eyes expecting some stupid, then turned her back to penelope to open the fridge. "well, it's not as much of a question as much as it is me forcing you into something."

"yeah and what would that be?" jj asked, her head still in the fridge.

"so i kinda told derek that we would come to a party the football team is having after the game..."

"you what?" jj shouted, spinning around on her heels. "nope, not going. i barely want to go to the game at all. i am not spending my night at some frat house."

"pleeeeease jayje?"

"no. final answer."

"what can i do to convince you to come? name it and i'll get it done." penelope pushed, she had her reasoning for this, but she wouldn't admit that just yet.  
just then, spencer walked through the door.

"hey spence." jj started, then froze. "oh! spence! that's it, penelope! you convince spencer reid to go to a football game after party at a frat house and i will go with you guys."

jj thought she had really won with that one, her arms crossed over her chest and everything. the room went silent for a moment, then penelope burst into laughter, shortly followed by spencer.

"wh- what is happening?" jj stuttered. spencer walked behind jj and put his hand on her shoulder.

"sorry jj, it looks like you already lost that bet." he said with a smile, then the two turned their attention to penelope.

"you are joking." jj was stunned. spencer reid, going to a party, at a frat house? a frat house???

"unfortunately i am not, she told me she would buy me some new books so i figured it couldn't be that bad, right?"

"ugh, i hate you both." jj added, then stormed off into her and penelope's room, slamming the door behind her.

━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━

penelope pushed through the crowd, dragging spencer and jj behind her. they were heading to sit with the sophmores, as hotch had invited her and emily, and told her to bring her friends if she wanted to. they had finally made it through the wave of people and, just as promised, hotch had saved them three seats.

"hey em!!" penelope exclaimed. giving the raven-haired girl a tight hug.

"hi penelope. i see you got them to come, huh?" emily shot back, smiling at jj and spencer. "hi, i'm emily." she added with a smile. spencer smiled and nodded, but jj, oh jj was a whole different story.

jj felt herself instantly blush. she looked the girl up and down. emily wasn't tall, but she wasn't short either, probably about 5' 7" if she had to guess. she had pin-straight raven hair that fell slightly below her shoulders and framed her face perfectly. she had a slim, slight hourglass figure, her tight, ripped black jeans accentuating her hips. her chest, well, jj would have to get back to you on that one, she was using everything she had not to stare straight at it. a tight navy blue shirt with a rather low v-neck framed her upper figure just as well as the jeans did her lower.

jj had always knew she had an interest in girls. she had a couple flings in high school, more being girls than guys, but none ever ended up going anywhere. penelope knew about this, and seeing the stupid grin she had smeared across her face, jj assumed she had every intention for her to meet emily well before this game. jj appreciated penelope's efforts, because some of her flings from high school that started to get serious were set up by the penelope garcia herself. but this girl, she was different. i mean look at her, jj thought. she jumped to the quick conclusion that emily would never, ever be interested in someone like herself. she was interrupted from her thoughts when penelope nudged her side.

"oh, sorry, jennifer jareau, but everyone calls me jj."

"well, nice to meet you jj." emily added with a smirk. she then turned around to talk to hotch again and jj turned straight to penelope.

"penelope grace garcia, i know you did not just-" jj started, but was quickly interrupted.

"shh just enjoy the night, sweets, you can yell at me later." penelope stated rather quickly, stumbling past jj to buy a soda for the game.

the five of them cheered derek on the whole game, which they ended up winning. jj had more fun than she would ever care to admit, and the group was now going down to meet derek before the party. penelope was the first to run up to him, practically squealing.

"chocolate thunder you did amazing!"

"thanks, babygirl. i couldn't have done it without you cheering me on." derek said with a wink. jj observed the interaction in utter shock. did penelope have a boyfriend she didn't tell her about? emily nudged her on the arm causing jj to turn her attention away from the scene in front of her.

"yeah i was confused too. but from what i've seen the relationship is strictly platonic. i'm not sure i exactly believe it, but whatever makes them happy. i think it's kinda funny." emily laughed before walking over to derek to congratulate him herself. jj nodded before walking over to derek too. derek gave emily a hug before turning her attention to jj.

"hey you must be... jj, right? penelope's told me a lot about you."

"yeah, although pen hasn't told me much about you."

"she told me you weren't much of the social type, i think the initial confusing is the fun part of our friendship for people."

"ah, i see. that sounds like her."

they both laughed, looking over at penelope who was talking to emily and hotch. jj was actually enjoying herself and, for once, she felt almost like a real college student. i mean, of course she was a real college student, but she hadn't been to any parties, she didn't make many friends since the school year had started, and she focused on mostly her schoolwork and nothing else. but now, being surrounded by a bunch of people who already seemed comfortable around her, at a football game, she thought that it might not be so bad to become more than her schoolwork. although now the group was heading to the frat house, and jj was dreading nothing more than that.

━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━

the group had made it to the party, which turned out to be not far of a walk from the football stadium. derek had gotten lost in the crowd, hanging out with the football team and drawing his attention to the girls swooning over him. reid had attached himself to penelope, making sure to never lose her in a crowd, knowing if he did he would be completely and utterly screwed. jj found herself hanging around the two, she was hesistant to drink, but eventually accepted a beer from penelope seeing as she was drinking too. all of them were standing at a table with a game of beer pong in progress, emily againsthotch. it was nearing the end, emily with one cup left to sink, hotch with two.

"em-i-ly, em-i-ly..." a drunk penelope whisper-chanted, almost slurring her words.

"hey, garcia, i love ya but shut up, please," emily shot back.

"right, sorry sorry."

emily stepped back slightly, eyeing the cup in front of her. she pulled her arm back and launched the ball across the table. it circled the rim, and just barely dropped into the cup, bobbing against the liquid inside it. penelope jumped up and wrapped her arms around emily bringing their lips together for a very drunken kiss. penelope jumped back and both girls fell into a laughing fit of their own.

"i haven't won yet garcia, hotch still gets his redemption shot."

"i knowwww, but now when you win you get to kiss me for a second time."

"i guess i'm just a lucky girl then, huh?" emily shot back, eyeing hotch for his last shot. hotch pulled back and eyed the table before releasing his last ball. it landed right on the rim of the cup before bouncing up and out, landing on the table below. the crowd around emily's side of the table cheered, and gave hotch his well-deserved bit of teasing. penelope jumped up and pulled emily in for yet another kiss.

"i am vvvvery adamant on keeping my promises." penelope slurred, making her way back to the side of the table.

jj observed the interaction from the couch she had made her way over to about three quarters of the way through the game. she loved seeing penelope happy, even if it meant she would have to practically drag her back to their dorm that night. penelope always seemed stressed, taking on extra workloads, trying to prove herself to people. she didn't need to, everyone knew and saw that, but she still did it anyway. jj was happy penelope was finally able to relax and have fun for once. she was so distracted by the commotion of the party around her that she didn't notice anyone leave the table until she felt the couch sink in next to her. she turned her head to find none other than emily prentiss sitting down next to her, holding out another beer.

"jennifer, right?" emily asked as jj hesitantly accepted the bottle.

"uh, yeah, jj is fine though. no one calls me by my first name except my parents." jj added with a laugh.

"ah, well, jj. what's a pretty girl like you doing sitting over here when the whole party is out there?"

"not much of the party type. not much of the anything type actually. i'm here cause i lost a bet to penelope."

"the bet?" emily asked.

"hm?" jj replied, noticing herself start to zone out of the conversation.

"what was the bet?"

"oh, well, i guess it wasn't much of a bit, more so i told penelope i'd only come if she managed to get spencer to come, and the two laughed in my face. hence the skinny kid attached to penelope's side all night who hasn't touched a single drop of alcohol."

emily nodded and laughed, jj forcing a laugh with her. the two girls fell into an awkward silence. there was an unspoken tension between the two which neither could interpret.

"well, i hope i see you around sometime, jj. you should come with penelope and hang out with us, i'd love to get to know you better." emily went to stand up and patted jj on the lower thigh right above her knee. jj, not expecting the sudden contact, jumped and immediately felt her cheeks flush. emily considered ignoring it, sparing jj the embarrassment, but ultimately decided against it.  
"everything okay..?" she asked cautiously.

"yeah, yeah. fine, sorry." jj murmured while shooting up and making a b-line for penelope. the speed jj was going left emily getting a good whiff of her perfume. vanilla and rose. she thought to herself. emily quickly found herself realizing she now loved the smell of vanilla and rose.


End file.
